unearths some literary gems.
From Rookery Nook, by Ben Travers:
[N.B. These Bens Travers that I'm currently traversing are the novels, not the stage versions that he sometimes wrote under the same titles, which I've looked at previously.]
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This [town of] Chumpton...not to be confused with Chumpton Chedzoy
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the pedantic beat of the grandfather clock
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an atmosphere which rung with querulous homilies on strange happenings and the marking of words
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Admiral Juddy...came Rachmaninoffing down his garden path.
[I feel like we've seen Rachmaninoff (v.) before somewhere.]
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Mrs. Posset's hat skimmed from her hand into the beard of the Admiral.
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Bonuses:
The narrator (plonkingly, but aptly) points out that telegraph deliverers are like spirits from the outside world.
"flabbergaster" [v.] instead of "flabbergast"; OED doesn't acknowledge it, but I like it.
